On August 9, 2024, the US, EU, UK and Canada released a joint statement announcing new sanctions against Belarus, referring to the fourth anniversary of fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus that resulted in Alexander Lukashenko remaining in power. These authorities cited Belarus’s support for Russiaās war of aggression against Ukraine and ongoing human rights abuses in Belarus as the motivations for the latest round of sanctions. Members of our global sanctions team in the US,…
On June 24, 2024, the EU adopted its 14th Russia sanctions package, including by amending Council Regulation (EU) 833/2014 (the “EU Russia Sanctions”), effective from June 25, 2024. The amending regulation is accessible here. The 14th package introduced several additional restrictions across different sectors, including: The strengthening of measures designed to prevent the circumvention of EU sanctions is likely to be particularly wide-ranging, impacting businesses outside Russia with indirect exposure to Russia and placing certain…
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (āOFSIā) published an update to the monetary penalties for breaches of financial sanctions guidance (āGuidanceā) on 2 May 2024 (seeĀ here).Ā The Guidance explains when and how OFSI will use its civil enforcement powers to impose monetary penalties for breaches of financial sanctions, including guidance on how such penalties will be calculated. The most recent changes primarily focus on Chapter 3 (Case assessment) of the Guidance. Following the recent update, OFSI…
On 14 December 2023, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (āOFSIā) published its 2022-2023 annual review (see here). The review summarises OFSI’s activities over the 2022-2023 financial year and looks ahead at trends and OFSI’s priorities for the next year. Russia Sanctions The report has a particular focus on the UK’s expanded Russia sanctions regime, stating that by 31 March 2023, “130 oligarchs and family members” who had a combined net worth of around Ā£145…